Newtown Square, PA – Judges: No Bible Reading at Kindergarten Show and Tell

12

Newtown Square, PA – A U.S. court says a kindergartner’s mother cannot read Scripture during “Show and Tell,” even if the Bible is the boy’s favorite book.

Join our WhatsApp group

Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email


Today’s ruling is a victory for the Marple Newtown School District in suburban Philadelphia.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says the school’s decision does not violate First Amendment rights given the nonpublic nature of the classroom and the tender age of the children.

The mother, Donna Kay Busch, argues the students heard stories related to Passover, Christmas and other religious holidays.

The appeals court says there is a “significant difference” between identifying those holidays and reading from Scripture.


Listen to the VINnews podcast on:

iTunes | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Podbean | Amazon

Follow VINnews for Breaking News Updates


Connect with VINnews

Join our WhatsApp group


12 Comments
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Anonymous
Anonymous
14 years ago

Keep the “scripture readings” in shul and church..don’t make kids in schools have to listen to a “dvar torah” or reading from T’nach from their classmates.

Gidon Ariel
Gidon Ariel
14 years ago

I am flabbergasted by this item.

Is the most published book in history off limits in a US kindergarten, as a Playboy magazine should be?

Or perhaps that magazine would not be prohibited, under the same first amendment?

Olam hafuch.

Jeremiah says
Jeremiah says
14 years ago

“It has changed a lot and now it’s from the better magazines.”

Rather: we’ve changed a lot.

PMO
PMO
14 years ago

This does not belong in a public school. In many public schools, yidden make up a very small percentage (sometimes one or two in a class… if ANY). How are these young yidden supposed to feel when the xian book is read in class as if that is what is “normal”. It makes them feel “abnormal” and creates a desire to read that book in order to fit in.

Public schools are their to teach secular studies. That’s it! Keep this xian garbage out of the public schools!

steve
steve
14 years ago

I just read an article about this by debbie schlussel (the conservative jew who has her own website). i encourage people to read it and see if they caught her manipulation of the event like i did. she begins her short article “i guess kindergarteners can’t listen to stuff…….from christians and jews” and then goes on to state that if the reading was from the koran (the central muslim book), it would have been fine.

why would she lump jews and christians in the same opening sentence as being victims when no jew was reading from the talmud and being told they couldn’t read from the talmud? i read a bit about her bio and she basically is extremely anti-islam and even more so pro-jewish and pro-israel which may explain why she decided to capitalize on an event were christians were victims by grouping jews in the victim group as well. for all i know (and if anybody knows this, please let me know), but does anybody know the religious background of the person that put the brakes on the mother reading from the bible in the first place? i ask because in massachusetts where i am from, we have a giant christmas tree in the center of the ‘boston yard’ and to make a long story short, you are not allowed anymore to advertise the word ‘christmas’ in print on any advertisement that involves the christmas tree for various events, and many of the people that made this condition were in fact prominent, wealth jewish americans in and around boston.

in regards to kaufman, i see how a prayer could make you feel uncomfortable when that is in fact not what you believe in, however i think there’s a difference between something that is done every day (and is a part of the daily school itinerary) and a show-and-tell event where a parent or child has 5 or 10 minutes to bring a piece of who they are into the classroom and talk about it – they dynamics are totally different. would you agree?